How We’re Training for Our Own Fall Races

For the editors of Runner’s World, “fall race training” has come to mean “prepping for one of the events at the Runner’s World Half & Festival,” which starts October 20 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and includes a 5K, 10K, half marathon, and trail race. (Learn about the weekend’s new-for-2017 highlights here.) When we need help reaching our goals, we hit up top coaches for advice—and here, we’re passing along the wisdom they shared with our Half & Festival staff ambassadors. Use the tips and techniques listed below to reach your fall goals, whether that means completing your first road or trail race, notching a fast finish, or taking on a challenging half (like ours!).

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Ryan Hulvat

Half Marathon

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Who Are You? A Hilly Half Fun-RunnerYour Goal: Train Enough to Enjoy It

Hit the hills… The only way to have fun at a race with a lot of ups and downs—and the Runner’s World Half is pretty much all ups and downs—is to climb and descend regularly in training. “Instead of doing a speed-focused training cycle, it makes a whole lot more sense to focus on hills,” says Atlanta-based coach Janet Hamilton (runningstrong.com). If you almost never run hills now, seek them out once per week: Find a hill (or bridge or parking garage) that will allow you to climb for about 60 seconds, and run it a few times during a midweek run that’s longer than your shortest recovery runs. Once you’re comfortable with that, you can progress to a route with longer and/or steeper climbs, Hamilton says. Then, you can start adding some hills to your long runs—warm up with a few flat miles, run a few miles on rolling hills, and cool down with several more flat miles.

…and run them right. “A lot of people don’t really grasp how to run hills,” Hamilton says. “They go into attack-the-hill mode.” This will leave you fatigued and breathless at the top, and will waste energy you’ll need later in your run. Instead, learn to run hills by effort: Tune in to how you’re breathing at a comfortable pace on the flat stretch leading up to the hill, and maintain that breathing as you climb. Keep the same cadence and upright posture: “You just push off with a little less emphasis,” Hamilton says. Maintain the same effort on the downhill—land lightly and increase your leg speed a bit to allow gravity to carry you to a faster pace than you’d run on the flats: “Think about not riding the brakes,” Hamilton says. Then, if you decide to do race-pace work on hills—which is smart if you have a time goal—you can practice averaging an even pace despite climbs and descents by maintaining the comfortably hard effort level you associate with half marathon race pace.

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IF YOU’RE COMING OFF ANOTHER RACE…

Respect your recovery. Running a half marathon for fun three or four weeks after a goal half or full marathon is okay—but only if you can keep it truly easy. “It all comes down to, can you behave yourself?” Hamilton says. “How good are you at pinning a number on and not putting out a race effort?” If you can do it, great—but take it really easy in the intervening weeks. After a goal race, Hamilton prescribes two days of walking to get blood flowing to recovering muscles without ramping up injury risk. Then, after one rest day, run three or four easy miles. That weekend, your “long run” can be whatever you did the weekend before your marathon or first half. Then maintain the mileage you ran the week before goal-race week (without intensity), and you’ll be ready to go 13.1 for fun.

IF YOU’RE COMING BACK FROM INJURY…

Fix what’s fixable. Returning to the site of a DNF is a learning opportunity: “Figure out what things could have contributed last time and don’t do them again,” Hamilton says. You obviously can’t control factors like weather or the course profile, but you can analyze your training, nutrition, stress levels, sleep quality, and even shoe choices leading up to your first DNF (like a too-aggressive marathon training plan in Hannah’s case). Before your redemption race, “be honest with yourself about your current capabilities and set a reasonable race goal based on that,” Hamilton says. For example, a 2 percent improvement from a recent personal best is achievable, while shooting for a 15 percent improvement—or to beat a time you haven’t run in years—could drive you to another injury.

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IF YOU’RE RUNNING WITH A FRIEND…

Think ahead. Anytime you’re planning to Amy-and-Shalane a race with a running buddy, you need to be on the same page: “It’s tough on both of you if you haven’t had an honest conversation beforehand,” Hamilton says. Make sure you’re both planning to run about the same pace. If there’s a discrepancy, the faster friend needs to practice running at the slower friend’s pace in training, to ensure it’s not so slow that it feels uncomfortable. And then, stick to the plan: “If the faster friend can’t slow down, go your separate ways and meet up at the end of the race,” Hamilton says.

“Hannah and I have been meaning to Amy-and-Shalane a race—that is, run in lockstep for the entire distance. I think the half will be the perfect place to try it: We can suffer through the hills together. I’ll be coming off a marathon and will likely use the half as my (admittedly long) victory lap. I may even treat myself to a celebratory beverage midrace.” —Ali Nolan, 31, Digital Articles Editor, @rallyalirun

“I’m ashamed to admit it, but in the five years I’ve worked at Runner’s World, I’ve only completed our half once. During my second attempt, in 2015, the hamstring pain I’d had for a month went from bad to debilitating. It was the first time I ever had to DNF a race. This year’s half is going to be my redemption run. My goal is to get to the starting line healthy and finish the half, hills and all, with a smile on my face.” —Hannah McGoldrick, 27, Social Media Editor, @byhannahmcg

Trust your base. Drop down from half- or full-marathon training to race a 10K, and you’ll likely wow yourself—even if you haven’t been doing much speedwork, says Hamilton. Long runs and high volume develop super-strong cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems. You’ll need to run 25 to 35 miles per week (with 30 to 40 percent of your mileage going toward a weekly long run) to run your best 10K—no biggie for half- or full-marathoners.

Run fast… Still, running your fastest 10K requires speedwork. “Training at 5K pace builds that horsepower,” Hamilton says—the strength and turnover you don’t develop when prepping for long-distance events. Ten to 12 weeks out from race day, add a weekly interval session at 5K pace, with no more than 7 percent of your total weekly volume run hard. For example, if you’re doing 28 miles in a week, you’ll want to run no more than about two miles at 5K pace (4 x 800 with 400 meters of recovery, for example), after a warmup lasting at least 10 minutes.

…then learn race pace. The biggest challenge for half- and full-marathoners who drop to the 10K is avoiding a too-fast start, Hamilton says. So run at race pace at least once per week for the six or seven weeks before race day. (Use a recent 5K or half marathon time to determine a goal pace with our race time predictor.) Hamilton has athletes start with short intervals—200s, 400s, and 800s—to practice staying under control. “When you’re running 200 meters at a pace you could sustain for 6.2 miles, you may find that you’re always going out too fast,” she says. Once you’ve dialed in at short distances, hit the roads: Work up to running about three continuous miles at race pace in the middle of a six- to seven-mile midweek run about 10 days before race day.

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Mitch Mandel

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RW Half & Festival 10K Ambassador:Christopher Michel

“I run one or two marathons per year, but otherwise, I don’t race often—as a dad with two kids, I’ve only got so much free time. But I really like the 10K distance: It’s long enough for me to feel like I’m pushing myself, and yet short enough that I can enjoy the rest of the day at the festival with my family. I ran our 10K for the first time last year and had a blast. This year, I’m training to go under 45 minutes, which would be a PR.” —Christopher Michel, 39, Digital Editor, @heyitsgogi

Ryan Hulvat

5K

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Who Are You? A First-Time RacerYour Goal: Love Your Debut 5K

Establish a run-walk plan. According to Jeff Galloway—the 10,000-meter Olympian turned famous coach—newbies who walk should start with either five seconds of running followed by 25 seconds of walking or 10 seconds of running followed by 50 seconds of walking. Begin your first run-walk with 10 minutes of walking, then do a 10-minute period of run-walking, and end with a 10-minute walk. Every week or two, expand the run-walk period and shorten the warmup and cooldown by three or four minutes. Work up to run-walking for a full 30 minutes.

Build endurance. While you don’t need to go farther than three miles in training to complete your first 5K, Galloway recommends working up to four or five: “That bestows a lot of confidence in people doing their first running-format race.” Add a half mile every other weekend; in between, drop back down to a three-mile run. It’s not necessary to run-walk the entire time: If you’re comfortable run-walking for 30 minutes, do so after a five- to 10-minute walking warmup, then finish with more walking.

Bring up the rear. On race day, you’ll likely be moving slower than many runners. To avoid impeding others’ progress, start near the back. There, Galloway says, “It’s not so competitive, and there’s not as much nervousness for beginners because they see that the people are like them.” Most importantly, the farther back you are, the more likely you are to pass some people: “That’s how you’re going to hook someone on running,” Galloway says.

“Last year, my mom, Mary, dropped 32 pounds (and drastically reduced the amount of blood pressure and diabetes medication she required) by changing to a mostly plant-based diet and taking up walking. I was thrilled when she started asking me about running. I edit Jeff Galloway’s beginners’ column in Runner’s World, so I introduced her to his run-walk method. She’s since ordered one of his Run Walk Run timers (you’re welcome, Jeff!) and is gearing up for her first 5K with me—and whoever else wants to join us—in October.” —Meghan Kita, 30, Senior Editor, @meghgrace

Ryan Hulvat

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Short Trail Race

Who are you? A Roadie Trying TrailsYour Goal: Don’t Hurt Yourself

Train on trails. Road runners who drop into a trail race tend to underestimate the difficulty of uneven terrain and big climbs and descents, says pro ultrarunner and coach Sage Canaday. To prepare for a short trail race, you must run on technical terrain at least once or twice per week, starting with your shortest, easiest runs and progressing to slightly longer ones. “Start slow, stay relaxed, and kind of dance with the terrain,” Canaday says. “The coordination between your feet and legs will get better over time—a lot of it is practice.”

Rehearse on similar hills. Find your race’s elevation profile on the event website. Then determine the length of each major hill, as well as how much elevation gain or loss happens over that distance, and find a climb near you that mimics it. Roads likely won’t do: “Most roads that cars go on don’t really go over a 5 percent uphill grade, while on a lot of trails, you’ll hit 10 or 15 percent grade uphill or downhill,” Canaday says. Once you’re confident doing slow, easy trail runs, add three or four weeks of weekly repeats: After a warmup jog, start with 6 x 2:00 at a comfortably hard effort, then add an extra repeat or a little more time (30 to 60 seconds) each week. Jog downhill to recover, and practice scanning the ground about 10 feet ahead of you for obstacles, which helps you move quickly without wiping out.

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Avoid an accident. Invest in proper footwear: “Trails can be treacherous if they’re wet and muddy and you don’t have traction,” Canaday says. “In a trail shoe with lugs, you can have more confidence in your foot placement.” And if you’re on singletrack with other runners—as you will be on race day—avoid tailgating. “You want to give people more space,” Canaday says, so you see obstacles before you’re twisting your ankle on them, and so if you do fall, you don’t take anyone else down.

Mitch Mandel

RW Half & Festival Trail Race Ambassador: Kit Fox

“I am a trail-race newbie. I’ve only done one (last year’s 3.8-mile event at the festival), and I wasn’t smart about it: I signed up on a whim, put in zero training miles on technical terrain, and tried to sprint downhill to the finish line before my hamstring twinged. Experienced trail runners say a good run on scenic singletrack is freeing, meditative, and fun. I want that feeling—and not another injury. So I’ll be training off-road, embracing the mud and rocks, and chasing that feeling trail runners rave about. See you in the woods!” —Kit Fox, 25, Associate Editor, @kitfoxrw

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